The firm of Foster Yeoman was the first company to introduce General Motors locomotives to the British Main line when it bought 4 locomotives to work its stone trains taking the aggregates quarried at Merehead

The firm of Foster Yeoman was the first company to introduce General Motors locomotives to the British Main line when it bought 4 locomotives to work its stone trains taking the aggregates quarried at Merehead, near Shepton Mallet, to depots at Theale and London. This success of this venture led to another local firm, ARC Industries, to also order 4 locomotives to work services from Whatley Quarry but in the 1990s the two firms combined their rail operations under the Mendip Rail banner to work services from both Merehead and Whatley quarries. One of the ex-ARC locomotives works a Theale - Merehead service as it departs from Westbury with empty wagons. June 2004. (Photo by Rail Photo/Construction Photography/Avalon/Getty Images)